Gerardo Luzuriaga
18-05-2018, BERRIA.
Abstract:
Gerardo Luzuriaga is an archivist, a pundit with a long career in his job. He is a professional who has years long advocated for a National Library of the Basque Country. “In 1998, the members of the Joana Albret Bibliotekonomia Mintegia (Librarianship Seminar Joana Albret) started making a case for the establishment of a National Library of the Basque Country in journals”. This article summarizes those demands, voicing a concern for the lack of due interest showed by native institutions when it comes to addressing this important subject. He considers other Digital Library options different from a National Library as inadequate. «In most countries, the digital library is at the centre of the national library. Furthermore, most of other peoples treasure the national library as their most cherished cultural institution. Not so here…».
Hence, Mr. Luzuriaga’s proposal emphasizes the creation of a national library. The national library needs to be an official institution, a centre accounting for all kinds of archiving and information domains, including the digital library. When it comes to management, «in the Basque Country one such official institution should shoulder the coordination of this domain, as it happens among all other peoples…».
Aside from that, he notes that the management of the national library should be assigned to a native digital company, dismissing present-day policies of allocating the management to alien companies. Finally, he makes a case for the provision of the national library with the necessary funds in accordance to its status.
